A black iMac in 2006 is simply black and white

Posted by Dennis Sellers Nov 29, 2005 at 3:47am

Needless to say—but I’ll say it anyway—the graphic accompanying this article is a Photoshop mock-up.—Dennis Sellers

The official verdict is in that black is the preferred consumer color for iPods, if you go by Amazon’s Black Friday’s statistics, that is. The online retail powerhouse reported that Apple’s black 2 GB nano ranked as the sixth best-selling electronic gadget, with Apple’s white nano coming in tenth on Amazon.com’s list of most popular items. Today’s report looks at what this could mean for 2006 and reintroduces Apple’s Chameleonic patent as it relates to this subject.

Expect a black iMac in 2006
I’m sure that an important trend such as this isn’t going unnoticed in Cupertino’s inner sanctum, which could easily translate into Apple introducing a black iMac option as early as 2006. Yes, it’s a fact that in the particular case of the iPod, the volume justifies providing consumers with a new color option, which may not apply to today’s iMac. However, as Apple begins to roll out their Intel based iMacs in 2006, they’ll be appealing to much larger audience that could very well justify Apple’s provision of a black iMac option.

In fact, every consumer that voted for Apple’s black iPod this holiday season, including “switchers,” will certainly be hoping to see a black iMac option unfold next year, this author included. It seems like pretty simple logic here folks, wouldn’t you agree? Yes, of course.
Minimal risk

I don’t know of a single company that doesn’t dread “inventory-hang.” Bankers and especially Wall Street don’t take kindly to inventory that has to be sold off in drastic next quarter retail sales, that affect a companies ability to introduce new products profitably. Apple has done an extraordinary job at keeping “inventory-hang” to an absolute minimum, and that will likely be the case once again this quarter.

While there could be a minor risk associated with introducing a black iMac option in 2006, it would be nothing compared to Apple’s original launching of the iMac in a wide array of colors. Therefore the risk is limited and shouldn’t hamper Apple’s decision to offer a cool new black Intel based iMac this coming year.

Apple’s chameleonic option

Within Apple’s secret arsenal, lies a little and often forgotten hardware technology, that is simply referred to as “Chameleonic.” Apple’s 2004 patent revealed many strategic advantages that this technology will provide them with over the coming years.

Being that today’s report is limited to the topics of consumer color options for digital devices and inventory issues, I’ll restrict my references to the Chameleonic patent, for the time being, to the subject at hand.

Apple’s patent point number 87 states that “the word “chameleonic” refers to the fact that the electronic device has the ability to alter its visual appearance.” The patent presents its first simplistic example in patent point number 89, as follows:

“The chameleonic electronic device is configured to change its visual appearance via light. That is, the housing is configured to allow the passage of light and the light system is configured to produce light for transmission through the housing. In one embodiment, the light system includes a light arrangement (not shown). The light arrangement, which is disposed inside the housing - and which includes at least one light source - is configured to emit light incident on the inner surface of the housing. As should be appreciated, light hat is transmitted through the wall of the housing changes the look of the housing and thus the visual appearance of the chameleonic electronic device. By way of example, the light may cause the housing to exude a specific brightness such as intense or dull light, a specific color such as green, red or blue, a specific pattern such as a rainbow or dots, or a changing behavior such as a strobe effect or fading in/out.”

The time is fast approaching where Apple will be able to introduce the Chameleonic iMac, iPod or any other future in-home and/or mobile digital devices - providing consumers with an almost limitless array of color options for their hardware, while completely eliminating dreaded inventory-hang for Apple and their retail partners. Apple’s use of advanced LED technology will introduce “color on-demand” for consumers: A feature that will have a lot of consumer appeal, especially as Apple moves further into our living rooms in the not too distant future.

For now, it’s black and white

Apple’s Chameleonic patent application will over time translate into many strategically important applications for the future. But in context with today’s report, the basic functionality of providing consumers with a wide array of color options for future iMacs and other devices was worth revisiting. It may or may not pan out for 2006, as Apple’s transition to Intel is enough to deal with this coming year. Yet stranger things have been known to happen.

It could be that Apple is engineering Chameleonic capabilities into their next OS dubbed “Leopard,” for 2007 - But only time will tell. For next year however, I think that Apple will rely on this quarter’s inventory statistics to justify introducing a simple iMac in black option. That’s simply black and white, to me.

neo@macsimumnews.com

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